The drudgeries of life

Just a couple of days ago, I came across this article on the issue of "ragging" in one of the national dailies. Almost all of us, I guess, are acquainted with the term "ragging" and have had the pleasure of getting "ragged" by our seniors in our freshman years! I can still recollect my first month at college! The ghastly tales of ragging that I'd heard flashing time and again through my mind, the fear of all the things that I'd be made to do, the initial paranoia, breaking out in a cold sweat whenever I saw a group of seniors, getting the goose pimples when I became the victim and was awaiting my turn to be "executed", doing my thing and hogging the limelight for all the wrong reasons, and finally being set free for the day only to be caught yet again by some other group the other day! Looking back at those days, I find it hard not to chuckle at the antics that I and my mates were made to do! But when actually facing the damn ragging thing, it's a different story altogether! That's why I wasn't surprised by the newspaper article in which no efforts were spared to criticize and condemn ragging! The scribe who wrote the article stopped just one step away from declaring the widely followed tradition of ragging as illegal and criminal!!

It's true that when parents send their wards away to college, their primary concern is of their "child's" safety and well-being, which are also the major concerns of the "child"! And all the tales of ragging taking violent turns that they've heard do nothing to calm their senses! What eventually happens is that one of the major issues at the counselling is that of ragging! And to soothe the parents, the institute folks go through great lengths to ensure that the concept of ragging is made obsolete! Slowly by slowly, ragging is becoming a less feared activity and is getting identified as a friendlier means of acquaintanceship and a fun-filled experience!

Luckily for myself and my batchmates, our immedeate seniors at college were the first batch of students to study at our college, so they were rather inexperienced in the art of ragging! But nonetheless, most of us were always on our toes ready to be caught and made to do things just the thoughts of which were sickening! But in the end, it turned out that none of us had to go through the mental trauma that we had imagined, and it was fun! One such instance of myself and my 20 odd batchmates getting ragged by a group of around 15 seniors will forever remain etched in my memory! It happened this way:

It was our second week in college. We were all aware that the seniors were going to make theri move sooner or later! They also wanted to get the feel of ragging! So, here we were, having an early dinner in the canteen in order to not miss the bus that would take us back to the hostel. Just as we were rounding up our dinner, someone whimpered that quite a few seniors had collected outside the canteen lying in wait for us! Holy cow! It was going to be a long evening!

While some of my friends managed to escape from the rear and some got caught in the act and face a more gruelling session of ragging, I decided to face it head on! So, there we were! 20 freshmen and 15 sophomores, with the latter in command obviously! The seniors were a bunch of rowdies and bullies, and we were skimpy, inexperienced novices! We knew we had to do what they had in mind for us... or else *gulp*! And then it all began!

We were divided into 2 groups of 10 each, and were told to pretend to be army forces of two warring nations posted at the frontier, and we were to let loose an imaginary barrage of bullets at our alleged adversaries, with sound effects and all! For a couple of minutes, there was a cacophony of human-imitations of gun fire of various guns ranging from the M4, MP5, AK-47, etc. Just when we were feeling satisfied with our imitation of a battle scene, the seniors interrupted with harsh yells that how come not a single moron was dying in the fight! So much for a perfect imitation:D! Roger that, we say, and one by one, we start dropping to the floor clenching our perfectly healthy chest as if a bullet had pierced it, coughing strenuously for the dramatic effect and finally "dying" a death which even the best actors would envy! For the chaps who continued with the gun-fight, the seniors hurled abuses yet again for going on and on with the gunfire! One senior shouted, "You fuckers! How many fucking clips do ya have with ya?! You have to run out of fucking bullets sometime, no??"! So, after even that advice was heeded to, the "fighting" went on for a while! After that, round 2....

Now, the bloody seniors made us all stand in a large circle! At the center, there were two of our batchmates who were the unlucky bastards chosen to be the center of attraction! One was told to pretend to be a snake-charmer and sit like the ancient rishi-munis with his legs folded and arms atraight forward as if in some sort of aasan! The other was told to impersonate a naagin (that's Indian folklore for you, people! A female snake wich can change form into a woman! For HP fans, a sort of animagus!) that seeks revenge from the snake-charmer, and has to dance around the charmer singing the song "Main naagin tu sapera" and pretend to be a snake! LoL! The rest of us were asked to dance to the tunes of the song also and boy! Was it a comedy of errors or what!! Also, the guy enacting the naagin was asked to keep striking the guy enacting the charmer from time to time just as a snake strikes while the charmer sat motionless! Poor charmer! He probably had a terrible headache that night! After all this was over, the grand finale was the individual ragging!

Almost everyone was made to do ludicrous things! But I'll enlighten you with just my ordeal! When I was called to stand before everyone and asked my name, my feet became rickety and wobbly, and I was afraid I was going to fall any instant! But miraculously, I managed to stand straight and spurted out my name! For your information, Steve James Nipps (that's me) isn't a very common name and unlikely to be heard quite often around these places! So, the seniors were sort of gleeful at discovering me, a rare specimen! A senior, quite clearly a jerk, asked me to write out my name, in the air! "That's it", i said to myself in relief! Okey dokey! And so, I started spelling out my name in the air with my index finger! Another senior called out to me and said, "Not with your finger, you moron"! Righto! I snapped up the pen from my pocket and began spelling out STE.. when a smart chap, probably the smartest in the group, asked me, "Hey Steve kid! You know wht your butt is?"! I reply in the affirmative feeling quite uncomfortable cotemplating the twinkle in his eyes! "Ok then", he says, "Start writing you name in the air with your fuking butt"! Too embarrassing but I started anyway! Feeling evertone sniggering under their breath, I stood at one place and started moving my ass slowly and conciously so as to form an S! Damn humiliating! Then for the T! Boy O Boy! All that seems to be missing seems to be my stripping act! Moving onto the E when a rather ugly and mosntrous fellow screams at me to stop! He enquires whether I like overwriting! No sir, I say honestly! "Then why the fuck are you standing at the same place and moving your butt! Start again"! So, there you go... Just like a typewriter, I moved from one end to the other end of the corridor "butting" out my name in the air cursing the implications of having a long name as mine! Finally, the seniors had had enough of me and one good guy told me that I could leave! *Phew*! What a relief!

Well, that's about it! There were many more ragging and intro sessions but none as cool as this one! And as I said, I still enjoy a good laugh while reminscing those ragging sessions! Probably ragging to such an extent is acceptable! Hope this post isn't as boring and soporific as I think it is...